This is my response to a long letter written to me by a student at Loyola University New Orleans, not a student who has ever taken any of my classes. I offered to speak to this student. This student did not respond to this offer of mine. The letter of C’s concerns this essay of mine:
Block, Walter E. 2018. “Teachers Who Look Like Me?” March 6;
See, also, this excellent commentary by a good friend of mine:
Mosquito, Bionic. 2018. “Comment.”
Dear C:
A call for ethnic diversity is a call for affirmative action, which I strongly oppose. Read a few of the critiques of AA which appear below, and then get back to me on that issue.
Left liberals, progressives, most certainly are “totalitarians.” They will not allow conservative or libertarians speakers on campus; for example, Ann Coulter, Charles Murray. Is that not totalitarian? Why is it petty to tell the truth about this matter? I don’t ask anyone to respect my point of view. I expect them, at least intellectuals, to counter my views in debates, for example. Yet, I have great difficulty in finding any professor on campus willing to debate me on these or indeed any other issues.
Political correctness is cultural Marxism. Both versions of Marxism, the cultural and the economic, are poison. In Canada, they just passed a law compelling everyone to use inclusive language. Jordan Peterson refused, and as a result has become a hero. You don’t consider it totalitarian to compel people to speak the way the socialists want?
The lefties are forever using language that is aggressive: racist, sexist, fascist, etc. I don’t mind that so much. What I mind is that this is pretty much all they do. They refuse to take seriously viewpoints with which they disagree, and attempt to calmly refute them. I do precisely that.
You regret that some language “hurts those people.” But that is what vigorous debate is all about. You don’t support snowflakes and safe spaces do you?
If you’d like to make an appointment with me to further discuss these issues, I’d be willing to do so.
Best regards,
Walter
From: C
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2018 11:44 AM
To: Walter Block <[email protected]
Subject: Your Difficulties with the Loyola Maroon
Dr. Block: I was intrigued by your challenge to Loyola students to determine whether or not your rejected articles were worthy of being published into the Maroon. Curious, I read them. Hopefully my commentary and questions can be of use and we can have a respectful and educational conversation about these issues.
As for your first article, “Teachers Who Look Like Me” I can see where the editor determined that there were some aggressive or touchy areas. The point of your article was to call to action more diversity in the sense of political viewpoint. I find no quarrel with this, it is true that liberal views dominate in college institutions. Conservative and moderate philosophies can be overlooked, and that is an issues that people should know about. But why did you choose to down the power of ethnic diversity? Clearly that African American student was excited that faculty were beginning to represent his background, what is wrong with that? Did you ask what why it was important to him that teachers represented his demographic? Maybe the excitement that people of his race can do well in any institution. Maybe that he can see himself in that teacher and find his own future that is not inhibited by any racism. Maybe that he has a teacher that he can bond with on a deeper level, one who knows what it is like to be in his shoes, one who knows the environment he grew up in and the struggles that he has faced and ones to come. Having a diverse staff is important to students, just as important as having a fellow student body that is diverse. It is not mere “lookism”.
I noticed you also use some brash wording that is aggressive needlessly, such as calling liberals “totalitarians”, which first of all either demonstrates a lack of understanding of the word, or is a petty jab. If the first, a dictionary should be the cure. Liberal views do not demand complete subservience from others. For the second possibility, why should people respect your point of view when you do not respect theirs? How do you hope to open up a respectful conversation and convince people that political diversity is important when you compare them to corrupt systems of government? Would that not be undermining your own message?
Also, calling political correctness “evil” without any justification seemed odd and pushed away from your main focus. Instead I became distracted at this insult, and it could make other readers begin to reject the rest of your article. You cannot make wild accusations without meaning, even if I would agree with you on this issue. It has been proven that using words that have been used in a derogatory manner towards any sort of group hurts those people. The awful connotations should be separated from those words, but it is a long process for that to happen. For now, it is still a reminder of the prejudice and discrimination that have been put towards that group of people.
In shorter note, I do not know why your second article was rejected. It was clear in defining that there is another way to view the debate on abortion, but I suppose the editor wanted a bit more depth into the morals and further explanation of methods and how it is a medium between the two sides. I hope this will have been of some gain to your work and understanding, I mean all of this with the most respect. I could find some articles that might demonstrate my point more eloquently than I can if you are interested.
Sincerely, C
Block, 1982, 1992, 1998; Block, Snow and Stringham, 2008; Block and Williams, 1981; Derbyshire, 2012; Gordon, 1998; Herrnstein and Murray, 1994; Levin, 1987, 1997; Lynch, 1998, Malek, 2002; Mercer, 2003; Mulcahy and Block, 1997; Rockwell, 1995; Sander and Taylor, 2012; Sowell, 1975, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 2000, 2016; Taylor, 2013, 2015; Taylor and Sander, 2012; Whitehead, Block and Hardin, 1999; Whitehead and Block 2004; Williams, 1982, 1985, 2003, 2005, 2011; Woods, 2004.
Block, Walter E. 1982. “Economic Intervention, Discrimination and Unforeseen Consequences,” Discrimination, Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity, Walter E. Block and Michael A. Walker, eds., Vancouver: The Fraser Institute, pp. 101-125.
Block, Walter E. 1992. “Discrimination: An Interdisciplinary Analysis,” The Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 11, pp. 241-254; http://tinyurl.com/24yojf; http://tinyurl.com/2fwlfc; http://tinyurl.com/2gejlp
Block, Walter E. 1998. “Compromising the Uncompromisable: Discrimination,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 57, No. 2, April, 1998, pp. 223-237
Block, Walter E., Nicholas Snow and Edward Stringham. 2008. “Banks, Insurance Companies and Discrimination.” Business and Society Review, Vol. 113, No. 3, September, pp. 403-419;
Block, Walter and Williams, Walter, E. 1981. “Male-Female Earnings Differentials: A Critical Reappraisal,” The Journal of Labor Research, Vol. II, No. 2, Fall, pp. 385-388;
http://www.walterblock.com/publications/mfearningdifferentials.pdf
Derbyshire, John. 2012. “The Talk: Nonblack Version.” April 5; http://takimag.com/article/the_talk_nonblack_version_john_derbyshire/print#axzz4yy9fOGX1
Gordon, David. 1998. “More Equal than Others.” Review of Dworkin, Ronald, “Is Affirmative Action Doomed? The New York Review of Books, Vol. XLV, No. 17, November 5, 1998, pp. 56-61; in Mises Review, Vol. 4, No. 4, http://mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=118
Herrnstein, Richard J., and Murray, Charles. 1994. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, New York: The Free Press
Levin, Michael. 1987. Feminism and Freedom. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction
Levin, Michael. 1997. Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean, New York: Praeger.
Lynch, Michael W. 1998. “Preferences Are Dead: Interview with Ward Connerly.” February; http://www.reason.com/news/show/30527.html
Malek, Ninos P. 2002. “Associate in Peace.” April 1;
http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=924&FS=Associate+in+Peace
Mercer, Ilana. 2003. “Bush’s Call for Quotas.” January 24;
http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1149
Mulcahy, Tim and Walter E. Block. 1997. “Affirmative Action: Institutionalized Inequality,” Freeman, October, Vol.47, No. 10, pp. 613-614, http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?nid=3871.
Rockwell Jr. Llewellyn H. 1995. “Repeal 1964.” The Free Market. Vol. 13, No. 5, May;
http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=244
Sander, Richard Henry, and Stuart Taylor, Jr. 2012. Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won’t Admit It. Basic Books; http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465029965/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0465029965&linkCode=as2&tag=thenewrep08-20
Sowell, Thomas. 1975. Race and Economics. New York: Longman
Sowell, Thomas. 1981. Markets and Minorities, New York, N.Y.: Basic Books
Sowell, Thomas. 1982. “Weber and Bakke and the presuppositions of ‘Affirmative Action,'” Discrimination, Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity, Walter E. Block and Michael Walker, eds., Vancouver: The Fraser Institute, pp. 37-63
Sowell, Thomas. 1983. The Economics and Politics of Race: An International Perspective. New York, Morrow.
Sowell, Thomas. 1984. “Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality,” New York: William Morrow.
Sowell, Thomas. 2000. Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy. New York, N.Y.: Basic Books
Sowell, Thomas. 2016. “Affirmative Action: Incentives for Ethnic Division on Campus.”
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2016/10/thomas-sowell-incentives-for-ethnic.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economicpolicyjournal%2FKpwH+%28EconomicPolicyJournal.com%29
Taylor, Stuart. 2013. “Race-Based Affirmative Action Makes Things Worse, Not Better.” April 18; https://newrepublic.com/article/112788/race-based-affirmative-action-makes-things-worse-not-better
Taylor, Stuart. 2015. “A Little-Understood Engine of Campus Unrest: Racial Admissions Preferences: An underlying reason for today’s ‘hostile learning environment’ on campus.” November 23; http://www.targetliberty.com/2015/11/a-little-understood-engine-of-campus.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TargetLiberty+%28Target+Liberty%29
Taylor, Stuart and Richard Sander. 2012. “Why affirmative action has failed: Racial preferences hurt minorities.” October 30. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/affirmative-action-failed-article-1.1193380
Whitehead, Roy, Walter E. Block and Lu Hardin. 1999. “Gender Equity in Athletics: Should We Adopt a Non-Discriminatory Model?” The University of Toledo Law Review, Vol. 30, No. 2, Winter, pp. 223-249; http://141.164.133.3/faculty/Block/Blockarticles/genderequity.htm; http://tinyurl.com/ypvz5h
Whitehead, Roy and Walter E. Block. 2004. “The Boy Scouts, Freedom of Association and the Right to Discriminate: A Legal, Philosophical and Economic Analysis,” Oklahoma City Law Review, Vol. 29, No. 3, Fall, pp. 851-882; http://tinyurl.com/24qjht
Williams, Walter, E. 1982. The State Against Blacks, New York, McGraw-Hill.
Williams, Walter E. 1985. “Good Intentions — Bad Results: The Economic Pastoral and America’s Disadvantaged,” Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy, Volume 2, Issue No. 1.
Williams, Walter E. 2003. “Discrimination: The Law vs. Morality,” Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy Fall pp. 111-136; http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=expresso
Williams, Walter, E. 2005. “Victimhood: Rhetoric or Reality.” June 9;
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4255
Williams, Walter, E. 2011. Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination? Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.
Woods, Thomas. 2004. “Discrimination Myths that Everyone Believes.” December 6;
https://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods32.html
where are the advocates of AA who have replied to any of these? No, they only engage in name calling.
1:11 pm on November 21, 2018
